New York Rangers: Proof fans have bought into the rebuild

A belief in the rebuild has already ignited a spark of hope in all New York Rangers fans.

Proof can be found by looking back at one night during the 2018-19 New York Rangers season. That night was Election Day, November 6, 2018, and the crowd at Madison Square Garden showed that Blueshirts fans are all in on the rebuild.

It’s the early days in the 2018-19 Rangers season, but despite predictions of mediocrity, there seems to be a little bit of optimism in the air for Rangers fans. After a lackluster start, going 3-7-1  through the first three and half weeks of the season, the Rangers have suddenly won three in a row.

After beating the San Jose Sharks for the second time in October, the Rangers then dispatched the Anaheim Ducks to kick off the month of November. Returning from California they promptly beat a ‘not terrible at the time’ Buffalo Sabres team at MSG, in a game where Henrik Lundqvist had 39 saves.

Suddenly, the Rangers are one game under .500 and playing with some confidence.

It’s now Election Day, and the scheduled game that evening at The Garden is against Original Six rival Montreal Canadians. Rangers/Canadiens is always an entertaining match-up, plus Canadiens fans travel well. They especially love to buy-up seats at the Garden and make a fair amount of noise. You also have Lundqvist versus Price and the history between Kreider and Price.  It all adds up to a rather interesting game for the first week of November.

The first period is entertaining, but the Rangers go down 3-1 after two quick Montreal goals early in the second period. Tony DeAngelo gets one back late in the second period but the Blueshirts are still facing a 3-2 deficit with 20 minutes to play.

Three and half minutes into the third, the Rangers get a power play but fail to convert. However, with just under 12 minutes to play, Kevin Hayes makes like Wayne Gretzky.

He pulls up with the puck and hovers just after entering the offensive zone and feeds a trailing Marc Staal, who blasts a shot from a few strides inside the blue line. Price makes the save, but Pavel Buchnevich is there to slap the rebound five hole into the back of the net. Tie Game.

The crowd is alive at this point. It is definitely the loudest it has been at the Garden so far this season, and soon the decibel level rises higher when the Canadiens are called for too many men on the ice with just under four minutes to play. The man advantage does not last however, as 46 seconds later Jimmy Vesey is called for a rather marginal hooking penalty.

The Garden crowd gets feisty, they begin serenading the referees with unkind vitriol. The derisive chant fills the building as the puck is dropped in the Rangers end with a four on four situation in play.

Then this happens.

The spin, the burst, the deke, the drive, THE GOAL!

The Garden erupted. It felt like a playoff goal, it sounded like a playoff goal, it was a playoff-like atmosphere.

When Mika Zabanejad scored a short-handed goal less than a minute later, the Rangers had won four in a row and were a .500 team. It was November 6, and suddenly there was hope that this team could maybe…maybe compete for a playoff spot.

More importantly there was a buzz in the air. You couldn’t help but feel the burning desire of every Rangers fan to win again and that what they had just witnessed was a precursor of things to come. There was a belief that the rebuild would be righteous and worthwhile, and that nights like this would come back to The Garden, only not in November….but in June.

The Rangers would go on a streak winning nine of eleven leading up to the Thanksgiving Holiday. The team was in playoff position at Thanksgiving, and we all know what that means.

Sadly, it didn’t last. Reality soon purchased a ticket and watched with the rest of us as the Blueshirts marched slowly to the trade deadline when the white flag was officially raised.

But on that night in November, it genuinely felt like this team was building something. But more to the point, that game ignited hope. You could hear and feel the hope of every Rangers fan that night. The fact that the season did turn out the way many predicted makes no difference. That game is what every fan hopes for in near future.

You could feel it. It will be great again….it will be…hope tells us that and Rangers fans are all in.